Popular podcaster Joe Rogan said “hardcore ideological conflict” has ratcheted up the possibility of civil war in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. (Watch the video below.)
On the “Joe Rogan Experience” episode posted Tuesday, Rogan noted that some people celebrated the death of Kirk, the conservative activist who was fatally shot at a rally in September.
“You want people to die that you disagree with?” Rogan asked rhetorically. “Like, where are we right now on the scale of one to civil war? Where are we? Are we at seven? Because I thought we were five. I thought we were like four or five.”
“But after the Charlie Kirk thing, I’m like, ‘Oh, we might be like seven.’ This might be like step seven on on the way to a bona fide civil war,” he added. “As soon as you start … celebrating somebody getting murdered in front of their wife and kid on television in front of the whole world. Soon as you celebrate that, like, man, you’re in dark territory.”
Fast-forward to 28:20 for the conversation:
While the number of joyous responses to the tragedy could not possibly be counted, The New York Times identified more than 145 instances by late September in which people faced workplace consequences for comments made about Kirk. Dozens more were still being evaluated at the time, the newspaper reported.
Rogan’s alarm about a widespread domestic conflict wasn’t supported by a write-up by the Center for Strategic & International Studies a few days after Kirk was killed.
“The answer is no,” the first sentence in the text answered.
“The risks of an actual U.S. civil war in 2025 are negligible and rhetoric to the contrary is counterproductive and inflammatory when analyzed in relation to studies of political violence,” the analysis continued. “The greatest risk on the horizon is not a civil war, but social media-induced tit-for-tat cycles of sporadic violence by lone gunmen.”